Women's Wire co-brands its financial content

Looking to marry two hot online ad categories--women and finance--Bloomberg and Wire Networks will launch an area on Women's Wire in early February.

The new co-branded Money area will replace Cash on Women's Wire. Current advertisers that will continue under the new deal include American Express Co., Fidelity Investments, Smith Barney and Strong Funds.

While Women's Wire has had a financial area since it launched in 1995, the company has found that new strategic partners can be a boon, said Ellen Pack, founder and VP of product development for Wire Networks.

CREATING IN-DEPTH SITES

"Our strategy is to create the best Web sites we can create, and often we can partner to offer breadth and depth along with top quality--while we work on serving the audience we know best, which is women on the Internet," she said.

Jonathan Fram, Bloomberg general manager of new media, said the deal is a first in a planned series for Bloomberg, which will partner with other category leaders for similar ventures.

"We have found that women on the Web are sophisticated and insightful investors," Mr. Fram said. "The key for us was finding the right partner with the right demographic."

Peter Krasilovsky, online analyst with Arlen Communications, agreed that the partnership of women and business makes sense.

"The women going online are professionals, in a disproportionate comparison to the men online. Finance and business are good niche areas and good areas to target women," he said. "Women's Wire already has very elegantly targeted women with a wide variety of topics," he added.

The Women's Wire sales team will lead selling for the co-branded area, although Bloomberg will also offer the new area in its own package deals across its multimedia properties. The current rate structure of $50 to $80 per thousand impressions will continue under Money.

Bloomberg will contribute news and financial content, as well as work with the Women's Wire staff, which will produce additional financial content.

One of the new features on the Money area will be an advertiser-sponsored Woman of the Day, Mr. Fram said. Each day, women from Wall Street, the entertainment industry, the political arena and other segments will be featured in an audio and video streaming format.

Money will also feature news, personal financial calculators and advice, along with areas already on Cash such as Mutual Fund Corner and Cover Your Assets.